| Author |
A brief(ish) analysis of the Psychology behind Darkspace players. |
Coeus
Grand Admiral
Sundered Weimeriners
Joined: March 22, 2006
Posts: 2815
From: Philly
|  Posted: 2013-08-26 10:02
A brief analysis of the psychology behind Darkspace players - as presented by a crazy.
Yes, yes. I know what you’re all thinking – “Coeus? Doing a psychoanalysis? More like a psychotic analysis!” Well to that I say, Go eat some earwax! Seriously, it’s supposed to be good for settling your stomach, or so the voices tell me. It takes a crazy to understand the crazies, that’s my rational. In any event, on with the show!
Plain as day that the population of DS is a mere fraction of what it once was. An MV that used to boast numbers in the dozens or hundreds now more often says “Perfect” than not: and clever PR phrasing aside, we all know what that means. Now obviously time plays a good part in this: DS is an OLD game, and I do mean OLD! For comparison: DarkSpace came out in 2001. World of Warcraft didn’t even enter closed beta until 2004! Now I don’t need to recite DS’s accumulated history: If you really are that interested & don’t know, check out the Wikipedia page & elsewhere on the internet. All I will say in regards to DS’s past is that it hasn’t been perfect.
And that right there I think is the problem. DS has never been perfect, there have been glitches and exploits galore, but as time goes on great strides have been made in order to balance the game out. Simultaneously, we have seen the populations plummet. Each new patch release has been heralded as a breakthrough in the balance and equality of the gameplay mechanics. In looking at the history of DS and just the mental outlook of gamers in general (Hell, how about Humanity in general?) shows that this may be a grave mistake.
“How?” You ask? Well it’s quite simple really. People don’t want a fair fight, they want to win, and they want to slaughter their opponents while they do it. As Bronn in Game of Thrones said when accused of not fighting with honor, “No. He did” pointing to the airborn grave of his vanquished opponent. In this world of online gaming, everyone wants to be the best, everyone wants to be the superhero or the supervillan. Gamers want the perverted satisfaction of mounting a Heavy Mass Accelerator on a Battle Station and flinging a trio of uberpowered Level 10 QSTs at cruisers sitting at a planet & one shotting them. They want to fly into a battle scene with a Missile Dread mounting 9 Flux Wave devices and royally screw up a bunch of ships at once before self destructing on a disabled EAD. Gamers want to cheat, exploit, lie, trick, and manipulate their way into a victory worthy of retelling in the chatroom after.
Think about it, when is the last time that someone was having a good laugh in chat talking about “That was such a fair fight! It was three on three, we were all in Battle Cruisers and Heavy Cruisers, and we each played to our factions strengths and the best pilots came out on top because they were able to maintain the best positioning for the longest time!” Never, nada, doesn’t happen! Want to know why? Because fair ain’t fun! Tractor Scouting, that’s fun. Station Docking & zipping around attached to a scout – that’s fun. An AC mounted with six nuke mines cluster-mining a jumpgate exit – THAT is fun! Balanced gameplay with limited modding options on perfectly tweaked ships? It’s entertaining for a little while at best.
There is a reason that many of the players who lived through 479, 480, 481, 482, and 483 look back fondly on those times with a chuckle and a laugh. It was so frustrating and yet at the same time, the pure ridiculousness of it all made the moments enjoyable. Sure there were many times where we would just rage quit or planet hug, but if we stuck around, we had a chance to see something truly outlandish and silly. Sabbot Rocket MD? Why not! Psi-Cannon Battle Dread? Go for it! You’ll be out of energy, but HOLY HELL What a light show! How about a Bomber Dread MIRV Cloud the size of a planet? We can do that!
The days when gold bombing badges were as easy to get as a bronze jump badge, and the corresponding construction pres for trying to build a planet that will take more than one demented persona to level – those were exasperating, maddening, and infuriating, but they were also days of action and a climate of constant change and massive flux (pun intended). Going back further, to the “Golden Age” of Scenario and the pre-SY days. How about it? 10-20 minutes into a Scenario and being able to whip out an Assault Dread and get into some quick, dirty, and intense combat. It was simple, it was unbalanced, and it was FUN!
When you break down the direction the game is going, and the mentality that most gamers exhibit, they are headed towards opposing culminations. If you need examples, look no further than the aforementioned WoW. What keeps bringing people back? The answer is the never-ending quest to have the best gear to be able to do the most damage and kill the biggest things as fast as possible. Balance never enters into it – the vast majority of endgame players who stick around in these games want to have the most overpowered setup in the game.
This is all looking at the typical “Hardcore” gamer mind you, which make up a decent percentage of the MMO market, but quite possibly an even larger segment of the gaming community is made up of “Casual” gamers. This is another segment that DarkSpace has abandoned in it’s quest for flawless balance. Like the Borg laboring onward in single-minded pursuit of perfection, DS forces players to adapt or die: And when they don’t adapt they simply disappear into the wind.
What does this mean for DarkSpace? It’s hard to say, because despite all this there definitely is an enjoyable quality to a fair fight, but it’s not a lasting enjoyment, and it’s not a challenge in the sense of “How can I one-up them next time & avoid being flux-bait?” but something as subconscious as “How can I change my firing pattern in order to do more damage to the port quarter next time I’m in that exact angle?” I’m not calling for DS to revert to 480, that’s gone for good. Which, when you think of it, is a shame. I’d wager dollars to donuts that if DS put up a 480 server, and actually advertised it and emailed old players there would be a decent resurgence. Nowhere near the 100-~ish 480 daily average, but enough to get some good stories.
Enough rambling from the crazy though, these are my thoughts on the state of DS, why it was what it was and why it is what it is. What do you lot think?
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Forger of Destiny
Chief Marshal
We Kick Arse
Joined: October 10, 2009
Posts: 826
| Posted: 2013-08-26 12:07
the Trade Federation recognises and affirms this crazy and investigative report.
people dont want to take the burden of responsibility nowadays.
but that may be because the real world is putting too much responsibility on the human side of players (lazy people, drunk people and people with families will agree).
the real world's restrictiveness ends up delivering stress (actual or perceived), which the netfolk since 1990s and especially 2000s have been letting out on their 2 GHz computers running short, simple or crazy games.
balanced games appear to many of the present netfolk what anti-addictives appear to addicts - persecution, threat, loss of self-identity.
maybe after another 10 years, people will be fixed.
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Chewy Squirrel
Chief Marshal
Joined: January 27, 2003
Posts: 304
From: NYC
| Posted: 2013-08-26 12:35
I could not agree more with everything in this post. The game was ridiculously unbalanced but in a sick twisted way it was so unbalanced that it was actually balanced. And this made the game fun. Now the game just feels... sterile. The game lost its charm in the name of balance.
[ This Message was edited by: Chewy Squirrel on 2013-08-26 14:48 ]
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DiepLuc
Chief Marshal
Joined: March 23, 2010
Posts: 1187
| Posted: 2013-08-26 14:25
After reading this post, I realize how Gangname Style has been the most popular MV ever although it's totally ridiculous.
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AdmiralChaos
Chief Marshal
Joined: October 08, 2008
Posts: 274
| Posted: 2013-08-26 14:35
I love this SO much.
You have no idea.. Actually.. I'm sure you feel the same way.
I want to play.. SO BAD.
Like I have a serious unquenchable thirst and its called Darkspace.
What we have now, looks like Darkspace.. but it doesn't feel like it.....
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coolestguy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: April 30, 2010
Posts: 74
From: coolestguy
| Posted: 2013-08-26 16:13
Coming from a player whos popped in and out of of DS for 3 years now its sad to see the game pop almost gone.
True everyone wants a "I win button"
I feel (and its just me) with such a small game pop, you must do what's best for the players vs whats "fair" If a majority of players have left, something was missed 
[ This Message was edited by: coolestguy on 2013-08-26 16:15 ]
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Pantheon
Marshal
Palestar
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 1789
| Posted: 2013-08-26 17:46
I'd like to address the design part from 1.480 as best as I can.
Faustus and the development team worked hand-in-hand up until 1.481, which was why 1.480 was a nice little gem, even if it was extremely broken (flux boats, bombing that made clients crash, cross-faction tech that made everyone go for the same thing, etc). It had it's issues, but it played extremely well and was balanced. Fights lasted a while instead of a few seconds, and it progress could be seen and felt.
Alas, 1.480 (with the exception of 1.6 and 1.7) was the last real version that had major input from Faustus. That's not a bad thing, and no blame should be placed on the man at all. But it did mean that the entirety of the development progress (content-wise at least) was left in the ideals of one man. This one person had no people to bounce ideas off except people in the lobby and friends. Whilst that may sound fine, people of the lobby and friends aren't developers. Just because someone has played the game for a long time or is a buddy doesn't mean they have sound development critique (sadly).
This one person left, and the rest of the content was left to be picked up by a few small number of people. It's important to note that these people weren't part of the development team, so had no idea what this person wanted. What was left was 1.481 to 1.483. A horrible mess of broken content, and insane game mechanics that were such a mess that we're still fixing them today...
I'm sure you've all heard about 1.483. By far the worst patch we've ever sustained. Our playedbase dropped by 75% almost overnight, and was the entire reason I came to be on the development team through a suggestions email to Faustus. Anyway, I digress.
Since then we've mostly been on the right track, but during 1.5 development too many ideas got changed and strewn into an incohesive mess, honestly. This led to negative signature missiles, missiles that insta-gibbed you. Ships that could never be seen or caught. It wasn't the worst patch we've ever had, but it wasn't the worst either. Meh.
Come 1.6, I had the (mis?)fortune of becoming development lead, and Faustus came back to impart advice and work on major game developments. Internally, we made changes so that we function more like Valve in the fact that anyone can work on whatever they like, so long as they have a decent presentation of the idea and it works in beta. If it doesn't, it's shelved. We've also opened up in terms of information, which I think has gone a long way to get rid of any thoughts that developers are bias towards one faction or another.
I've been part of the development process from about 2008, from a tenny-weeny developer that barely knew what a pointer was. It's been, quite honestly, quite messy internally up until about a year or so ago. But since then, you can definitely see the difference. 1.7 is our biggest patch, it has the most content of any patch we've released, it goes a long way to removing a lot of imbalances and adding a lot of new toys for players to mess about with, and adds an incredible amount of framework for us to play about with in 1.75. Most noticably being dynamic events and a planetary system rework (sorry this has taken so long).
In closing, players may want overpoweredness to enjoy a game, but overall, I think a game just needs to be good and fun to play for people to enjoy it, which is what 1.7 aims to do. It may not be the DarkSpace of ye-old, but honestly, I doubt anyone really remembers what it was truly like, rose tinted goggles and all that jazz.
Hopefully we'll see a resurgance when 1.7 is released, I think it's one of our better releases (far better than anything past 1.480 anyway). Only time will tell if it punches us into the hundreds again.
- Jack
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Coeus
Grand Admiral
Sundered Weimeriners
Joined: March 22, 2006
Posts: 2815
From: Philly
| Posted: 2013-08-26 18:39
Go back & re-read what I wrote Jacky, it's not about the game itself, it's about how the game mechanics appeal to the baser psychology of your average player.
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Pantheon
Marshal
Palestar
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 1789
| Posted: 2013-08-26 18:50
Quote:
On 2013-08-26 18:39, Coeus wrote:
Go back & re-read what I wrote Jacky, it's not about the game itself, it's about how the game mechanics appeal to the baser psychology of your average player.
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I get that, and I did read it. I was referring to the "some players want overpoweredness" part. There is some truth in that, but if 483 taught us anything, it was that more people want balanced fun than to be overpowered and/or unfair.
[ This Message was edited by: Pantheon on 2013-08-26 18:50 ]
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coolestguy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: April 30, 2010
Posts: 74
From: coolestguy
| Posted: 2013-08-26 19:46
Quote:
On 2013-08-26 18:50, Pantheon wrote:
it was that more people want balanced fun than to be overpowered and/or unfair.
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Just wondering but if thats true there should be more players on and a growing player base right?
I know ive been gone almost a year and there are far fewer players which is sad, this game is great.
[ This Message was edited by: coolestguy on 2013-08-26 19:46 ]
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Pantheon
Marshal
Palestar
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 1789
| Posted: 2013-08-26 20:10
Quote:
On 2013-08-26 19:46, coolestguy wrote:
Quote:
On 2013-08-26 18:50, Pantheon wrote:
it was that more people want balanced fun than to be overpowered and/or unfair.
|
Just wondering but if thats true there should be more players on and a growing player base right?
I know ive been gone almost a year and there are far fewer players which is sad, this game is great.
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You jus... what?
You just quoted my post, questioned it, and then answered your own question with my post.
Perhaps you should read it again?
[ This Message was edited by: Pantheon on 2013-08-26 20:10 ]
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Fluttershy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 24, 2011
Posts: 778
From: Fluttershy
| Posted: 2013-08-26 20:10
What exactly happened in 1.483?
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Sheraton*XO*
Chief Marshal
Faster than Light
Joined: January 18, 2013
Posts: 482
From: Keel Mountains
| Posted: 2013-08-26 21:19
Quote:
On 2013-08-26 17:46, Pantheon wrote:
I'd like to address the design part from 1.480 as best as I can.
Faustus and the development team worked hand-in-hand up until 1.481, which was why 1.480 was a nice little gem, even if it was extremely broken (flux boats, bombing that made clients crash, cross-faction tech that made everyone go for the same thing, etc). It had it's issues, but it played extremely well and was balanced. Fights lasted a while instead of a few seconds, and it progress could be seen and felt.
Alas, 1.480 (with the exception of 1.6 and 1.7) was the last real version that had major input from Faustus. That's not a bad thing, and no blame should be placed on the man at all. But it did mean that the entirety of the development progress (content-wise at least) was left in the ideals of one man. This one person had no people to bounce ideas off except people in the lobby and friends. Whilst that may sound fine, people of the lobby and friends aren't developers. Just because someone has played the game for a long time or is a buddy doesn't mean they have sound development critique (sadly).
This one person left, and the rest of the content was left to be picked up by a few small number of people. It's important to note that these people weren't part of the development team, so had no idea what this person wanted. What was left was 1.481 to 1.483. A horrible mess of broken content, and insane game mechanics that were such a mess that we're still fixing them today...
I'm sure you've all heard about 1.483. By far the worst patch we've ever sustained. Our playedbase dropped by 75% almost overnight, and was the entire reason I came to be on the development team through a suggestions email to Faustus. Anyway, I digress.
Since then we've mostly been on the right track, but during 1.5 development too many ideas got changed and strewn into an incohesive mess, honestly. This led to negative signature missiles, missiles that insta-gibbed you. Ships that could never be seen or caught. It wasn't the worst patch we've ever had, but it wasn't the worst either. Meh.
Come 1.6, I had the (mis?)fortune of becoming development lead, and Faustus came back to impart advice and work on major game developments. Internally, we made changes so that we function more like Valve in the fact that anyone can work on whatever they like, so long as they have a decent presentation of the idea and it works in beta. If it doesn't, it's shelved. We've also opened up in terms of information, which I think has gone a long way to get rid of any thoughts that developers are bias towards one faction or another.
I've been part of the development process from about 2008, from a tenny-weeny developer that barely knew what a pointer was. It's been, quite honestly, quite messy internally up until about a year or so ago. But since then, you can definitely see the difference. 1.7 is our biggest patch, it has the most content of any patch we've released, it goes a long way to removing a lot of imbalances and adding a lot of new toys for players to mess about with, and adds an incredible amount of framework for us to play about with in 1.75. Most noticably being dynamic events and a planetary system rework (sorry this has taken so long).
In closing, players may want overpoweredness to enjoy a game, but overall, I think a game just needs to be good and fun to play for people to enjoy it, which is what 1.7 aims to do. It may not be the DarkSpace of ye-old, but honestly, I doubt anyone really remembers what it was truly like, rose tinted goggles and all that jazz.
Hopefully we'll see a resurgance when 1.7 is released, I think it's one of our better releases (far better than anything past 1.480 anyway). Only time will tell if it punches us into the hundreds again.
- Jack
|
I agree most people prefer to win rather than to put some effort into it but I personally find more enjoyment in a long drawn out battle in which I am able to kill someone. There is no fun in a quick fight IMO.
-Sheraton
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coolestguy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: April 30, 2010
Posts: 74
From: coolestguy
| Posted: 2013-08-27 01:18
All i know is the game had lots of loyal players a year or so ago, but after these updates im lucky if i see just a few players.
That is the final signal to any development team (especially in with a tiny player base) that something was ignored and those players must be brought back.
Sadly last few nights its been dead in game, so i just log onto other games. Shame b/c i still like this game but with no players, whats the point?
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Mr.Grim[Loyalist]
Marshal
Joined: June 08, 2007
Posts: 301
From: Behind you
| Posted: 2013-08-27 02:52
Quote:
On 2013-08-26 20:10, Fluttershy wrote:
What exactly happened in 1.483?
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to put it this way UGTO battlestations could launch 3 qsts maximum at 3k now when they hit they would insta pop anything sub battleship and the battleship would be in pieces
there was also no Enhancements so you were basically a cooked fish when you seen anything with a QST or if it had an ICC Tag on and it and it belonged to FS and there mighty ADs of terror *good ol days*
also insta popping siphons were entertaining ohhhhhhhh! and must i forget MIRV's 3 of them *not 3 stacks* just 3 bombs would glass an entire planet *if you could get to it* Kluth planets were instant death at anything closer then 800 gu, in general 1.483 = push button things die....
now days however its push button ummmmm what did my qst do oh yep 1 % damage 
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